Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz has no problem wearing sneakers on the red carpet. He showed up at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel last night sporting a velvet bow tie, suit, and red Converse One Star kicks, setting off a swarm of Instagrammers swooping in to get a close-up of his shoes. "You know what, I wanted to be comfortable tonight," he told ELLE.com of the choice.

The designer, who was bestowed with the 50th Anniversary Geoffrey Beene Fashion Impact Award during YMA's Fashion Scholarship Fund dinner, noted the honor was "extra, extra, extra special," as Beene gave him his start.

"I spent a wonderful seven years with Mr. Beene," said Elbaz. "He's the one who opened the doors of heaven for me."

Although Elbaz didn't sing to the audience as he did to celebrate his 10th anniversary at Lanvin—"I'm a horrible singer, be happy I'm not [singing]," he confided—he did regale the crowd with stories of his start. "I tried for three years to get an interview with Mr. Beene," he recalled.

"If I called in June of '88, I was told to call in June of '89. When I called in the summer, they told me, 'Try in the winter, honey.' Then I was told, 'Honey, we don't have an opening.'" When he finally did land "the job of my life," Beene didn't have room for Elbaz in his studio, so, Elbaz said, "They brought me a coffee table from the showroom, and that was my office: a coffee table in a dressing room." While things are a bit different for the designer now, Elbaz nonetheless cautioned at the end of his speech: "I always say success is like a perfume. You can always smell it, but don't you ever drink it."

"Maybe, we're trying. We met a few people, so we'll see. I'm so superstitious. I never talk about it to give them the privacy and the choice to try different designers, to try different dresses, and to end up deciding what they really feel like wearing."

"She actually wore [Lanvin] last night…for her premiere, a dress was made. Emma's a great friend, I love her. I think she's so talented. She's such a good daughter to her mother, and she's such a good actress. I think she has it all, and I wish her all the best."